The reason for the curious choreography of a US aircraft carrier when launching a plane

@DefAviation ES 6·12·2023 · 21:29 0

If you look at the flight deck of a US aircraft carrier, you'll see a lot of people wearing different colored vests.

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Four years ago we have already seen here the meaning of each of those colors, which indicate the mission of each of the members of the aircraft carrier's flight deck personnel. There is another curious detail of these decks, known as the most dangerous workplaces in the world, that will call your attention if you pay attention to what happens while the planes move: those personnel with colored vests < strong>makes a series of gestures and sometimes even performs dances.

The reason for these gestures is that the flight deck of an aircraft carrier registers noise levels that make oral communication impossible, so it is necessary to transmit the different orders through visual signals. Each of these gestures serves to communicate information and orders to the pilot or other members of the flight deck personnel.

Each gesture is previously calculated so that the transmission of information is precise, since on a flight deck there is no room for errors. Any failure can cause serious accidents and even the loss of human life.

The young Spanish aerospecial engineer Sergio Hidaldo published today an excellent video on the one that explains the meaning of that choreography, as well as the complicated process to take the plane from its parking place to one of the catapults and make it fly (the video is in Spanish, you can activate the automatic subtitles in English in the bottom bar of the player):

Congratulations to Sergio for the excellent series of videos he is making about the United States aircraft carriers. You can see here the one dedicated to landings and here is the one that published about the direction of air operations. You will find more interesting content related to aviation and astronautics on his YouTube channel (if you are interested in those topics, I recommend you subscribe).

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Lead photo: U.S. navy. An FA-18F Super Hornet fighter of Strike Fighter Squadron 154 "Black Knights" about to be launched from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76).